A new study published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America suggests implants could be a discreet alternative to traditional hearing aids.
Previous research had placed tooth-based hearing aids onto molars and placed a microphone to receive sound behind the ear. But this new research takes it further by converting implants into hearing aids.
The media outlet Science News explained the methodology, “first, the team had to determine how well dental implants transmit sound compared with natural teeth and the mastoid bone behind the ear, which other types of hearing aids rely on to work. So the researchers applied sound tones to the implants, natural teeth and mastoid bones of 38 people with hearing loss and a single dental implant. For a wide range of frequencies, the volunteers could hear sounds through implants as well as, or better than, through natural teeth or mastoid bones, the team reports.”
Results of the testing suggested that front-tooth implants worked the best. The team hypothesized that this was due to the jawbone at the front being harder than the back. However, there was no distinguishable difference between lower teeth and implants compared to uppers for transmitting sound.
Read the full study here: https://asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/10.0013898